Habit Burger & Grill plans to open a corporate-owned restaurant at Drexeline Town Center in Drexel Hill during the second quarter of 2027, bringing the California-born burger chain to a bustling mixed-use development anchored by a light rail station. The new spot is expected to land at 5010 State Road, marking the chain's latest move into the Philadelphia region.
According to PHILADELPHIA.Today, the Drexel Hill location is one of two new Philadelphia-area Habit restaurants planned for 2027. The other is slated for a former KFC building at 9201 Roosevelt Boulevard in Northeast Philadelphia, though as delco.today reports, that site's opening date has not yet been finalized.
Habit is owned by Yum! Brands, the same parent company behind Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, per the same report. The chain's menu centers on flame-grilled charburgers alongside sandwiches, salads, fries, onion rings, tempura green beans and shakes. Habit was founded in the Santa Barbara area in 1969, according to montco.today.
A Growing Regional Footprint
The Drexel Hill announcement follows close on the heels of another local opening: a Jenkintown restaurant was set to open on October 5, 2026, the same delco.today report notes. Habit already operates locations in King of Prussia, Cherry Hill, Hamilton and Lawrenceville, giving the chain a foothold on both sides of the Delaware River as it pushes deeper into the region.
Jonathan Trapesonian, Habit's head of real estate and franchising, framed the expansion as a deliberate strategy rather than a scattershot approach. “Pennsylvania, specific around Philly, is a priority for us. We want to have scale,” he said, per the outlet's reporting. The company has said it is still scouting additional sites throughout Greater Philadelphia.
That ambition lines up with figures reported by montco.today, which notes that Habit says it could add two to five Philadelphia-market stores a year, with Center City and Wilmington among the possibilities under consideration. Separately, NBC Philadelphia has reported that Habit is seeking franchisees and multi-unit development agreements to help build out the market.
Why Drexeline Fits the Formula
Habit typically targets spaces between 2,000 and 2,600 square feet in mixed-use shopping centers surrounded by large residential populations, according to delco.today's report, and Drexeline Town Center checks those boxes. The development is a mixed-use property in Drexel Hill anchored by the Drexeline light rail station, according to MCB Real Estate, which owns the center.
The property includes a newly constructed 72,000-square-foot ShopRite that opened in August 2023, per MCB's own listing, along with a three-story, 60,000-square-foot medical-office building fully leased to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Delaware County Human Services, according to a separate MCB release on the firm's 2025 acquisitions. The Philadelphia Business Journal has also reported that Turning Point and Jersey Mike's are set to open at the center, underscoring that the town center continues to bring in new tenants.
Traffic estimates for the surrounding roads vary depending on the source. Drexeline Town Center's own website lists State Road traffic at approximately 38,000 vehicles per day, while MCB Real Estate's property listing cites counts of 25,700 average annual daily trips on Route 1 and 16,000 on State Road. Either way, the site sits along a heavily traveled corridor in Delaware County, the kind of location Habit has said it favors as it works to build scale across the Philadelphia market.
